Japanese Muscle Car (Pro-Tourer)

[Rory]

I have been asked if my car is a Cuda', Javelin, and any other late 60's early 70's American muscle car.
I fact it is a 1976 Nisan Laurel SGX. As you can see it carries many styling ques from those early american cars.


I bought the car after my second trip to Japan, I own a shop here in Boise Idaho, we were buying cars in Japan, stripping the good bits from them, filling containers and shipping them to Boise. I saw a Laurel on our first trip over and that was that, I needed to own one. I started watching Japan Yahoo (equivalent to our EBAY), finally one came up in Yokohama. I had our 'car' guy over there go take a look.
Here it is parked in the gentleman's driveway that I purchased it from.


Some of you may recognize the red car parked next to the Laurel as a Nissan DR30 (predecessor to the famous GTR), and is that a 70's Trans-Am, how cool would it be to roll that in Japan?

When I picked the car up in Long Beach I was a little disappointed at how rough the body was. So the first thing on the list was to remove the huge flares and fix the rust and bondo areas on the car. Gotta love a hard top with the windows down...
BEFORE


AFTER



So fast forward a couple years or more.... Time to upgrade the running gear, I sold the stock 2.0 straight 6 and 5-speed the car came with, the 100 rwhp (after 2 hours of tuning on our dyno) just isn't going to cut it.

I considered many different options regarding the motor.

1) RB26 Nissan's flag ship motor that came in GTR's from 89-2004, great power, best sound EVER, extremely expensive to build and parts supply is a Japan only affair.

2) LSx as you guys know, great power potential, largest after market support in the world, light, small. Good option but didn't feel right about not staying Japanese.

3) 2JZ-GTE, hands down in my opinion the best motor ever built. Still I was not sure about not staying Nissan.

4) VH45 (Q45) Infiniti's 4.5 liter V-8, although it's very wide with it's 4 cams the idea of having a Japanese car that looks like a muscle car sound like one seems like a good fit.

So the search began for a donor car. After watching CL for a few months the perfect 1991 Q45 was listed. Not running and asking $500.
After a little haggling I was the owner of a non-running parts car. A new fuel pump relay and it started right up. After removing all the good stuff I got $350 for the shell at the recyclers.



Here is the engine still in the Infiniti, is that not the ugliest intake manifold you have ever seen? Yes it's sideways.




Here is the engine compartment of the Laurel.



The test fit, surprisingly it fits without needing to cut cross members or the firewall. But man is it close to the strut towers....






The head to brake booster and clutch cylinder clearance is TIGHT...




There are many benefits of starting with a Japanese car..

Factory IRS, it is only trailing arm but it is almost a direct copy of the rear suspension of the infamous E30 M3 of which there are endless upgrade options. The current differential is open and runs 4.11 gears (to make up for the lack of power), I will be installing the 3.48 LSD out of the Infiniti.

Factory McPherson front struts, I have already completed a coil over conversion which will need new springs to carry the extra load.



Power windows and locks, A/C, power steering although still uses a box not rack.

Ok, probably enough to get my build thread started. Currently i am fabricating a custom intake to replace the horrible stock one and gain some hood clearance.

More updates soon

Thanks
Rory

[Chadman27]

Never seen BFG Radial TAs psi'd out like the tuners, that's pretty wild. Is that even safe?

[Chadman27]

Definitely looks good BTW, not "h8n"

[Simmo]

Must have been hard not to run the RB26, but I think you made the right choice.

Awesome build...will be watching your progress!

[Buryingthesun]

swap a GTR motor into it

[69lsxamx]

Cool car. It's nice to see something different.

[ChevelleNV]

Nice, really like the body lines...

[5spd540]

That is cool

[Rory]

Chadman27, the stretched look is very popular, I drove the car for a couple years without tire issues.
I have changed wheels so not an issue....

[Rory]

I do love the RB but they are just too expensive to build, for example a good oil pump will run $1200.
Also, I like think the V-8 will result in the right flavor.

[deejai35]

Interesting build. It is surprising how much the body resembles the American muscle cars. The tail end reminds me of an AMC.

[Rory]

It's almost as if the Japanese designers were looking at a handful of American cars while penning the Laurel.
What is really cool are the little details that are common to do to 60's-70's cars now.
Like the bumpers are already tucked into the body.
I will add a few pics soon.

[WS6]

Cool looking car. I think it's going to be a pretty badass ride when done.

[srh3trinity]

Funny how they were mimicking US cars then and how the reverse is somewhat true now. That car has cool lines. I like the out of the box thinking on this one.

[Tealm0nsta]

Interesting build. It is surprising how much the body resembles the American muscle cars. The tail end reminds me of an AMC.

no kidding, I see an AMX rear pillars, what looks like a 68 nova front fender and chevelle a pillar. Of course its its own car but it definitely had the muscle car silhouette

i wasn't digging it until i saw a full side profile w/ the new wheels.

[vette427-sbc]

Wow! Love the stance with the new wheels... Very cool outside-the-box car

[CruizinKev]

hey cool project! you'll repaint the car or leave it flat black?

[AintQik]

I'm a die hard US muscle car guy but I've been eyeing a few of the Japanese muscle cars and really digging them. I've said one will be my next build. They are just cool. Been kicking myself ever since I let this lil Nissan go.

[Chadman27]

More pics!

[mikeybigblock]

Way cool! Cant wait to see more pics.